UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Ireland’s foreign minister says “the world is a crazy and tragic place right now,” pointing to the war in Ukraine and other conflicts, the looming famine in the Horn of Africa, the Iran’s expanding nuclear program, the global impacts of climate change and a polarized UN Security Council as some of the main challenges.
In a wide-ranging interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, Simon Coveney also touched on the issues closer to home, saying he hopes the ongoing quiet negotiations between Britain, Ireland and the European Commission can resolve the tough Brexit issues by April 10. , the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which largely ended three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland in which more than 3,000 people died.
Coveney, who arrived in New York as Ireland nears the end of his two-year term on the Security Council, called his country’s experience in the UN’s most powerful body “sometimes frustrating”, saying that there are examples of how the council achieved “Good things, but unfortunately, there are many more examples where the Security Council has failed.”
He cited his failure “time and time again” to protect vulnerable people around the world, his failure to adopt a single resolution on the war in Ukraine due to Russia’s veto power, and the council’s membership reflecting the later world. to World War II not the world powers of today and, more importantly, it does not have a permanent seat for an African country.
Coveney said history will also be “a very harsh judge” of many countries for what was allowed to happen during the 11-year war in Syria, “and the human suffering that followed.”
He said Ireland and Norway are trying to renew a resolution due to expire on January 9 before leaving the council at the end of December that would continue UN authorization for humanitarian aid to be sent from Turkey to rebel-held northwestern Syria. , where 4.5 million people live. – “almost the population of Ireland” – they need food, medicine, tents and education for their children.
“I think we can do it,” Coveney said. “I don’t want to say that too confidently because of course ultimately this is up to Russia to decide.” Russia, Syria’s closest ally, has tried to reduce cross-border aid, aiming to eliminate it, using its veto threat, with deliveries now limited to a single crossing for just six months.
“And hopefully we will find a way to end the madness of the war in Ukraine in a much, much shorter period of time than what has happened in Syria or in Yemen,” he said. Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 and continues after a six-month truce ended in early October.
When Ireland joined the Security Council in January 2021, Coveney said he never dreamed of the scale of the conflict the council would try to deal with, including in Ethiopia, which “barely makes the news,” in Afghanistan, where the United States and the NATO leave. and the Taliban takeover have created “enormous suffering and vulnerability for the female population” and in Ukraine.
As foreign and defense minister, Coveney said he never thought he would see a war in Europe with a level of “brutality and aggression” not seen since World War II, where “a military superpower” decided to try to change international borders. force by invading Ukraine on February 24 and “is now also unapologetically and brazenly attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure, to try to make life miserable in Ukraine.”
The minister said Ireland sees “significant war crimes occurring almost daily” and is supporting the International Criminal Court, which is investigating alleged crimes, both politically and financially.
Ireland is militarily neutral, he said, but has hosted 65,000 Ukrainian refugees and is supporting the Ukrainian army by paying for items including uniforms, fuel, bulletproof vests, food and medical supplies.
“So we are part of this war and we want to end it,” Coveney said.
But he said Russia cannot be allowed to succeed in Europe or anywhere else because it “creates a precedent for other powerful countries to dominate their neighbors militarily,” he said.
Given the sacrifices Ukraine has made, and Coveney estimated that at least 250,000 civilians and military personnel have been killed, the world must be guided by what the Ukrainian government can accept when it comes to ending the war, he said.
Coveney expressed his hope that through diplomacy and the military reality on the ground, Russia would change course.
“I can assure you that the EU, the US and other partners will never abandon Ukraine,” he said.
Closer to home, Coveney spoke about the ongoing issues of Brexit following Britain’s departure from the European Union in 2020, which upended the open border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of Britain, following the peace deal. Good Friday 1998 and the lifting of trade barriers. because Ireland and Great Britain were members of the EU.
When Britain left the EU, an agreement known as the Northern Ireland Protocol was struck to keep the Irish land border clear of customs posts and other checks because an open border is a key pillar of the peace deal. But instead there are checks on some goods coming into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.
In May Northern Ireland elected a new Assembly in which the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party, which seeks union with Ireland, won the most seats for the first time and the pro-British Protestant Democratic Unionist Party came second.
But the DUP says controls on assets undermine their place in the UK and they have refused to join a power-sharing government until they are scrapped. According to the Good Friday agreement, a government cannot be formed without the agreement of the main unionist and nationalist parties.
Coveney expressed his hope “that in the next few weeks we will find a way to make the protocol work for everyone: unionists, nationalists, London, Dublin, Brussels, and we will finally allow ourselves to move on from this circular. and negative debate.
